


The One Where Newt Takes Particle Physics

by AutumnIris



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Professors, Belligerent Sexual Tension, Except Not Actually, Graduate School, M/M, Notfic, Professor Hermann Gottlieb, Sapiosexuality, Smart Is The New Sexy, Student Newton Geiszler, Teacher-Student Relationship, feel free to take this and run
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:46:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29646663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutumnIris/pseuds/AutumnIris
Summary: Hermann Gottlieb just wants to enjoy the one graduate level class he's allowed to teach. And he would, if it weren't for the smartass ruining it for everyone.
Relationships: Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb
Kudos: 9





	The One Where Newt Takes Particle Physics

**Author's Note:**

> I'm full of ideas but I never actually turn them into actual fics because I'm lazy I guess. I figured why not post them as notfics and let people enjoy them anyway. If you really like it and you want to fill in the gaps have at it, just credit me please.
> 
> Everything I post was originally sent by text to a friend so we're just gonna pretend autocorrect is to blame for typos. The run-on sentences on the other hand are 100% my own sin.
> 
> This is based loosely on an actual thing that happened to me, although the real version is a lot less sexy (as real life tends to be).

It goes down like this: it's a college au where Hermann is still a fairly new professor teaching graduate level partial physics (Along with all the standard gen-eds they make new professors teach for their first few years of course) and he's got this one student who just... Keeps. Having. The. Right. Answer. All. The. Time. Which isn't actually a problem so much as it just sucks to have a know-it-all in your class. Plus the guy keeps having really insightful ideas that he seems to just grab off the top of his head and why is he even in this class anyway?? This has nothing to do with his major! He's a biology major, Hermann checked!

Like, poor Hermann was coping but he's not sure how he will survive having to grade yet another essay that stands up in quality to his last professionally published article and WHO IS THIS KID??

It's a few days later, in class, Newt (What sort of name is Newt anyway? everything about the man demands not to be taken seriously.) is giving a long-winded answer as usual, and he quotes Hermann's latest work word for word... The one that was published only a week before in a very obscure and for-serious-academics-only journal. Which, well it's not entirely impossible that Newt read it but it's certainly unlikely. Isn't it?

Hermann cracks. He starts yelling at Newt right there in the classroom in front of everyone, and Newt is yelling right back: tearing apart Hermann's proposals and hypotheses as if he understood them. And Hermann calls him a cheat and an imposter. And Newt says "oh yeah? Well if I were an imposter how would know that you were right about (insert science here) that you hinted at in (insert article) and I can PROOVE IT??"

Anyway so he marches up to the chalkboard and proceeds to derail what's left of class time and the entire next period and just... Uses Hermann's own research to back up his theory in a super concrete way with some particularly elegant science which will specifically piss off a rival of his.

And it's so unbelievably sexy. 

[[[Ok so most people would be like: "And then they Kiss!! 😍" But NO, because that's hella unprofessional and being professional is approximately 46% of Hermann's cannon characterization. You can't kiss your students no matter how hot their brain gets you. It does lead to some very intense eye contact though because let's face it they're both really into each other. The academic tension has been palatable for a while now.]]]

By the time Newt is finished, Herms is kinda gobbsmacked and asks Newt how he even knows all this, to which Newt just throws out "I've read all your stuff, man" like it's completely obvious. Because it turns out Newt read one of Hermann's early works on a whim and fell head over heels into brain-lust with this guy he never met and went out searching for anything else he had. When he realized that he was getting his doctorate at the same college where Hermann worked, he completely rearranged his schedule just so he could be in this class.

When everyone is calmed down and Hermann's had some time to process, he sends Newt an email along the lines of "you have an A in my class. Please stop showing up and taking my attention away from the other students who do not already have the subject memorized. Also, how would you like to be credited for this paper I'm about to write based on everything you just screamed at me for 3 hours?"

So Newt stops showing up to class but he 100% starts showing up at Hermann's office randomly and at least once a week they stay late into the night bouncing ideas off each other and arguing incessantly. They talk about everything and anything and eventually the biology rants Newt goes on even start to make sense to Hermann, allowing for a little quid-pro-quo on the theoretical science side of things. And then, after 3 years and two additional collaborative papers, Newt has his Defense and gets his doctorate. (It may or may not be his 3rd. Don't tell Hermann)

And suddenly he's not a student anymore and THAT is when they kiss. After graduation. Somewhere off campus. Because "Damnit Newton I don't care if it's perfectly legal! It is still against school policy to fraternize with students and I will not be put on probation just because you cannot contain yourself for five minutes!"

(Newt eventually goes and gets another 3 doctorates because he can't be stopped, but he decidedly does NOT get them from the same university and he does NOT become a professor, because either of those things would be a conflict of interest for his husband.)

**Author's Note:**

> Seriously, I don't know what posessed me to post this but if any of you actually talented people out there want to do something with this please do. I've got a LOT of notfics rattling around so if you like this and want me to post more of them lmk


End file.
